The Real Estate Tomato

WARNING! Horn Tooting: The Inman List of the Top 25 Most Influential Real Estate Bloggers for 2008 Is Out, and We're On It!

After what has been an absolutely whirlwind year of company growth, product development and business travel, it’s hard to believe we had any time to blog at all.  So, I have to admit, being recognized for the 2^nd year in a row as one of the most influential real estate bloggers, came as a bit of a surprise… albeit a pleasant surprise.

I’d like to think that the reason that I have been recognized as being so influential is because of the success of the many hundreds of real estate bloggers that we have developed over the last 2 years.

Collectively our clients have published 10’s of 1000’s of great looking and informative blog posts.  So as much as I would like to take the credit for this achievement, the real honor belongs to our incredibly talented staff and to the dedicated bloggers of Tomato Nation.

Here’s the complete list of Inman News’ selection for 2008:
(In no particular order)

 Congratulations to all those selected!

Broker and Agent Blogs

Kris Berg Founder, The San Diego Home Blog
Teresa Boardman Founder, St. Paul Real Estate Blog
Noah Rosenblatt Founder, Urbandigs.com
Daniel Rothamel Founder, Real Estate Zebra
Jay Thompson Founder, The Phoenix Real Estate Guy

Community, Multi-Author Blogs

Lani Anglin-Rosales New Media Director, Agent Genius
Greg Swann Founder, Bloodhound Blog

Mortgage Blogs

Todd Carpenter Founder, Lenderama
Dan Green Founder, The Mortgage Reports

Housing Economics Blogs

Barry Ritholtz Founder, The Big Picture
"Calculated Risk" Founder, Calculated Risk

Industry Commentary Blogs

Michael Wurzer Founder, FBS Blog
Joseph Ferrara Co-founder, Sellsius Real Estate Blog
Joel Burslem Founder, Future of Real Estate Marketing

Marketing and How-To Blogs

Dustin Luther Founder, 4Realz.net
Nicole "NikNik" Nicolay Co-author, MyTechOpinion
Jim Cronin Founder, The Real Estate Tomato

Local Blogs

Lockhart Steele Founder, Curbed
Jonathan Butler Founder, Brownstoner

Company Bloggers

Rudy Bachraty Social Media Guru, Trulia
Drew Meyers Co-author, Zillow Blog, Geek Estate Blog
Glenn Kelman Contributor, Redfin blog

Journalist Blogs

Peter Viles Co-author, L.A. Land
John Cook Co-founder, Where Are John and Todd?

Housing Bubble Blogger

Patrick Killelea Founder, Patrick.net and Reality Parser

Tags: Inman+News, Real+Estate+Blogging, Influential+Blogger

3 Years Of Real Estate Blogging - The Gift That Keeps On Giving

A very special post on the Real Estate Tomato today: Teresa Boardman takes a look at what 3 years of blogging on StPaulRealEstateBlog.com has done to her and her business.

3 Years of Real Estate Blogging - The Gift That Keeps On Giving

By Teresa Boardman

There are not many places where a blogger can write about blogging, except for here on the Tomato which is about blogging so once again I send my post to Jim. 

A year ago I sent a list of 40 observations I had made after two years of writing a blog.
The observations still apply but the list is so 2007.  My neck still hurts but not as badly; I found an exercise that helps.  The only thing that has really changed from last year is that I don't talk anymore I just blog.  I am kidding of course.
 
Now that I have hit year three I realize that my blog is the gift that keeps on giving.  Posts I wrote three years ago are working hard for me  as readers search through Google and find them.  Some of the posts just never go out of style.
 
When someone sends me a question via email, I almost always have a link to my blog to send back with an answer to their question.  When I need most anything in writing, I can usually find it in my blog.  If I can't, I call it 'blog food' and write a new post.
 
I face new challenges these days.  When I go to write a blog post, and I already have 1300 of them, it isn't as easy to come up with new ideas.  Sometimes I write the same thing twice and don't even realize it.  Sometimes I just recycle old posts.  Occasionally I am truly inspired and write something decent.
 
The blog was redesigned this past year.  I wanted something a little fresher without changing the brand or making it look too commercial.  I learned a lot through the design process and Jim was extremely patient with me as I shared my vision.  He laughed when the design was ready and I didn't want to pull the trigger.  He told me that he expected me to resist.  He knows that my blog is my business and that it isn't easy for me to let someone else go in and change it. I am lucky to have a friend like Jim who gets it and isn't afraid to give me a kick in the . . . you know what I mean.
 
I am very happy with the new look, and my readers have responded positively. It looks more professional and it handles photos better which is important as they are a huge part of what makes the blog work.  It doesn't look like anyone else’s blog which is also important to me.  Like me, it has it's own personality.
 
The blog is now the center piece of my online presence.  A couple of years ago it was my online presence.  Today it is like a hub in a wheel  of my ever expanding online business portfolio.  The wheel is made up of memberships to social networks, and photographs. There are also thirty two separate pages in my blog, five photo albums, and two other blogs.
 
It may sound like all I do is write my blog, but keep in mind this is content built one word at a time, one day at a time over a period of three years.
 
The blog is still an experiment, and I continue to learn and grow.  I know my writing skills have improved as have my photography skills.  Doing something everyday is a great way to fine tune one’s skills.  Writing is still my biggest challenge. . . oh and I still can't spell.
 
Has it been worth all the work?  Yes it has been.  The content keeps brining me buyers and sellers, and the blog still has a higher ROI than any other marketing piece.  I seriously doubt if anyone is reading post cards or newspaper ads that I published three years ago, but they are certainly still reading my blog posts. 

Thanks Teresa!  Happy Blog Birthday.

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Related Must Reads:
40 Observations By Teresa Boardman Regarding Her 2 Year Old Real Estate Blog
How Has Blogging Changed Your Real Estate Career?

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Teresa Boardman is an exceptionally professional Realtor in the St. Paul, Minnesota area.

Her website:www.TBoardman.com 
Her blog: www.StPaulRealEstateBLOG.com
Voice: 651-216-4603

Tags: Teresa+Boardman, Real+Estate+Blogging, Blogging+Advice

Why Should I Blog? - It's About the Value of Being Seen as the Expert in Your Niche

As I was standing at the podium at the Christie’s Global Conference talking about the marriage that is Real Estate and Content, an idea struck me that at the time I only had a limited opportunity to touch on... knowing it deserved more.

The audience I was speaking to deals mostly in incredibly high end luxury homes.  We're talking mansions, castles, villas and the like.  What struck me was the idea that if you were to break down the value of their time when applied to working with one of these listings, you're easily looking at several hundred dollars an hour... and perhaps the prospect of putting several hours a week into blogging for business might be difficult to justify.

The more I thought about it and considered the true value of real estate blogging, one question came to be the measure: What would you invest to be the leader of an audience of potential and qualified clients looking forward to hearing from you?

The power of blogging and the answer to why you should, lies in the goal of developing an audience that you can lead. 

Blogging is taking the initiative to be a leader, a leader in thought, reporting, opinion and exposure.

In the offline world, you may have 90% percent of your market wrapped, but what about the online mind-share? 
Are you seen as the leader? 
Do you have the exposure? 
Are your opinions respected? 
Are you recognized as a resource that stands apart? 

When you push something forward as powerful as a well maintained and developed blog, something that you believe in, your audience will respond.  They will be attracted to your breaking from the status quo, and the content alone will provide you with the exposure necessary to draw them in the first place.

What has the investment been to be recognized as the leader in the world outside of the internet?  In most cases, it takes years of physical advertising costs coupled with an unwavering dedication to hard work and success for your clients.  Why should this seat be held with anything less for the world online?

The good news is that it (still) does, in fact, take less.  Much less.

By maintaining a quality blog, that is that resource, you are already doing more that 99.7% of your potential competition.
The number of quality blogs in any given market is lower than low, and it will be for years.  As a dedicated blogger, nailing topics that your intended audience is seeking, your exposure will be unrivaled and you will lead.

Since the search for answers to real estate needs starts on the internet, whether your hourly rate works out to be $30 or $3000, you can’t help but recognize the incredible return on the time investment you make with your blogging.

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Related Must Reads:

He Asked Me, "Why Am I Blogging?"

How Often Should I Blog?

Who Are You Blogging For?

Tags: Christie's+Great+Estates, Real+Estate+Blogging, Blogging+Advice

Warning: These Simple Podcasting Secrets Will Increase Blog Traffic

As I head out of town for the week, thinking I really need to get an article published, our new friend Jessica Donovan from Real Estate License Direct swooped in with a guest post, on a topic that I have hardly covered: Podcasting.  So lucky you; instead of having to wait until I get back with enchanting stories from the turquoise coast of Bermuda, Jessica is holding down the fort with this sweet post.

Thanks Jessica!

Warning: These Simple Podcasting Secrets Will Increase Blog Traffic

By Jessica Donovan

What if someone told you that you could increase your blogs traffic, subscribers and exposure with little to no work and without costing you a single cent, would you be interested? Listen, if hearing all of that wouldn't peak your curiosity, you may need to reconsider your means of generating new clients, because that would have the rest of us doing some extreme acrobatics that our bodies were just not built to handle!

All jokes aside, your blog needs exposure to be successful. It’s the simple truth, without having some sort of exposure whether it be through the Internet and/or real estate communities, your blog will not flourish and grow up to be a big blog. Now, now, relax a bit, there are a lot of ways to gain exposure, in fact a lot of them are covered right here on The Real Estate Tomato, but have you given any thought to gaining more exposure through the extremely hot podcasting universe? Well guess what, you can gain lots of exposure, even more targeted traffic and loads of new subscribers by simply clicking a few buttons, setting up some free accounts and instantly converting your plain old blog into a podcasting machine!

How to Turn Those Plain Old Blog Posts into Popular Podcasts

How can we not love the Internet, or more specifically, all of the great tools the Internet places at our disposal! There are actually a couple of very good and free blog to podcast conversion services, so please allow me to cover each one:

Odiogo - In my highly experienced yet humble opinion, the Odiogo "post to podcast" service is the best option available on the market at this time. This free service allows you to not only turn all of your future blog posts into podcasts, but it will also convert all of your past posts as well by utilizing the incredible power of rss feeds. Their service uses a unique text to speech program that allows listeners to "tune in" on your articles and listen to what you're writing about.

Once installed on your blog, Odiogo will automatically add a listen or play button above your posts giving readers the option to sit back and listen to each article. Odiogo will also give you free, detailed download statistics for your podcast channel along with the option to embed ads in your podcast channel to make a little revenue from those visitors. Best of all, the service is available on a variety of popular blogging platforms such as WordPress, Blogger, TypePad and more.

Talkr - While this service is extremely similar to what Odiogo offers, I just don't feel that their speech program is of the same quality, in other words sounds as good. Though they do offer a very nice user interface, again with detailed reports and customized submission to the iTunes service, which is really nice. The account is free to setup and only takes a minute, they will also produce a complete rss feed for your site that includes the mp3 podcast files for users to listen to at their convenience.

One nice thing about this service is that all of the features can be hosted completely off site for you, meaning that you can serve podcasts from your blog through Odiogo and use Talkr as a second means for additional exposure without the two conflicting in any way. I do suggest that you take a look at Talkr's free podcast service.

Premium Option - If you have the extra money, you might also consider going with a premium blog to podcast service such as AudioDizer, which offers some very intriguing distribution and advertising packages.

What About that Exposure You've Been Selling

Ah yes, exposure! Well here is the great thing, by simply setting up your free accounts on the two services above you are already receiving more exposure to your blog. Your new podcasts will be listed in their directories for people to find you by category or search term, all they have to do is click play. Also, as I mentioned above, Talkr will submit your podcast to iTunes which is excellent exposure and you can't beat the price but with a little leg work your sites exposure can double, triple, quadruple and even more, by submitting your podcast feed to the hundreds if not thousands of podcast directories available online.

I know, I know, busy agents don't have the time to go sniffing around for free podcast directories, it needs to be easier than that. Great, because it is much easier, here are some great lists of free podcast directories, just find the ones you like and submit your podcast:

• Where to Submit Your Podcasts: Best Podcast Search Engines and Directories
• Podcast 411
• Podcasting Tools
• List of Top Podcast Directories

That list of sites should keep you busy for a little while, of course if you run out you can always search Google for even more directories that will accept your podcast

Is There Anything Else I Need to Know About Podcasting

Everything above should just about wrap it up. Although you might want to consider publishing full feeds on your blog before setting up any of the services above. Publishing partial feeds will only allow for partial podcasts which may turn away potential listeners, so do them and you a favor and switch over to the full rss feeds.

Welcome to the Vine, Jessica!

 If you enjoyed reading this article, why not Subscribe to be notified of the next one?

Related Must Reads:
The Secret To Successful Comments
Running Into Oncoming Traffic
Why Blogging Makes You A Better Realtor

Tags: Real+Estate+Podcasting, Blogging+Advice, Real+Estate+Liscence+Direct, Jessica+Donovan

Real Estate BarCamp Houston - Sharing Business & Technology Knowledge

Disclaimer: I don’t normally drop press releases for events that I am not directly involved with, but for this one I needed to make an exception for 2 reasons.  First of all, I want to be there, and be involved, but I just can’t swing it.  I will have just gotten back from a trip to Bermuda for the Christie’s Great Estates Global Conference where I will be speaking with Dustin Luther and Marc Davidson.  And secondly, my favorite Real Estate Blogging event so far this year was the first-ever REBarCamp in SF.  Sure it was followed up with a Beer-With-Bloggers… but seriously, it was an amazing event that I was thrilled to be a part of.  So, Mike Prices’s request to drop this announcement was an easy one to fulfill.

Houston, October, 1, 2008

Real Estate BarCamp Houston is slated to take place on October 22 at the Shenandoah Convention & Meeting facility just north of Houston, adjacent to The Woodlands, Texas.A BarCamp is a technology and business event sometimes referred to as an "unconference". Unlike traditional conferences, the event sessions are planned the morning of the event by the attendees. The first Real Estate version of a BarCamp took place last July with over 200 people in attendance. (Visit www.rebarcamp.com for photos and video )

Paul Chaney, President of International Blogging & New Media Association To Keynote

Paul Chaney, the President of IBNMA and a published author of blogging and social media books will kick of the event with a keynote address. The unconference format allows anyone in attendance to present, or participate in sessions with a BarCamp policy that encourages active participation.

The facility is perfectly suited for the event and will have wireless Internet access, projectors and more. There is no cost to attend and a boxed lunch and limited edition conference T-Shirt are also included for all registered attendees. Event expenses are paid via sponsorships. According to BarCamp rules, all sponsorships are provided at a single level. The event is being planned by a group of local real estate professionals and real estate technology/marketing companies.

There is a contingency of out-of-state attendees registered to attend that include representatives from companies like Active Rain, Zillow, Trulia, Real Estate Shows, Keller Williams and more. The following companies are sponsoring the event.

ActiveRain.com
MLBroadcast.com
AgentGenius.com
Zillow.com
Zipvo.com
BiggerPockets.com
InmanNews.com
Build A Sign
Jadukka.com
BuyWaterfronts.com
EnvoyMortgage.com
First American Title Ins.
Prudential Gary Greene
Trulia.com
Hawaii Life Real Estate Services
Jeff Manson – Hawaii Real Estate Guy
NationalRelocation.com
StickerGiant.com
AltosResearch.com

How to Find out More and RSVP

Visit http://www.rebarcamphouston.com to get more information on the event and RSVP.

Attendance will be on a first come first served basis based upon RSVP's. Date: October 22 Location: Shenandoah Convention & Meeting Facility - 29955 I-45 North, Spring, TX 77381 Hours: Registration Starts at 8 am. Keynote 9 am Sessions 10:15 to 5:15 Boxed Lunch & T-Shirt To First 200 RSVP'd Attendees REBarCampHouston.com and REBCH.PbWiki.com are the official event sites.

Follow @rebarcamphou on twitter.

All area real estate professionals including those from the building, mortgage, title insurance, home inspection, commercial and residential sales and more are encouraged to be active participants, speakers and attendees.

Contact Mike Price at 832 331 4846 if you have any questions.

Tags: REBarCamp+Houston, Real+Estate+Blogging, BarCamp